Mitigating climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world’s population. Now, a team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute has developed an entirely new material that’s a low-cost, high-impact sustainable solution to address one of the largest contributors to climate change—concrete.
According to Statisa, between 1995 and 2020 worldwide cement production jumped from 1.39 billion to 4.1 billion tons, making it the second most widely used substance on Earth next to water. Due to how ubiquitous concrete is, and its high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, “humanity needs to come up with an alternative to concrete,” says Civil, Environmental & Architectural Engineering Associate Professor Nima Rahbar.